Piccolo's Lapse
by Z0mbiKitty
Summary: A girl stumbles upon Piccolo, who was training in the woods, after being chased. She gains an interest in the green man, who is very reluctant to her personality. Will she break his shell? Or will he make her regret meeting him? (An alternate reason to why Piccolo's heart is so cold towards Gohan when he kidnaps him to train for Vegeta and Nappa's arrival.)
1. Chapter 1

"A thousand zeni?" the girl looked wide-eyed at the man behind the counter of a small pawn shop. "You can't be serious!" she slammed her small fist on the counter, making it shake.

"I'm sorry, kid, I'm trying to be nice. It's not even worth half that," the man said calmly. She was a regular, coming in almost daily to try and sell old items. She looked about 15, short in stature, still having that innocent glow to her. He felt bad for her, always offering more than he should.

Her blue eyes, filled with shock just moments ago, faded quickly to pain. Her high posture slumped in defeat, knowing she couldn't fight the offer any further. "A thousand zeni," she accepted.

The man grabbed the old chain she brought in, placing it on a table behind him. He opened the register and handed her the zeni, "I don't mean to pry, but you come in often. Do your parents know what you do?" she looked at him with grey eyes, her mind sifting through different things to say.

She snatched the money and ran out of the store, almost bumping into someone on her way. She ran until she couldn't any longer, falling to the ground with tears in her eyes. Her short brown hair stuck to her cheeks as she cradled herself.

She sat there for about a minute, pushing all bad thoughts to the back of her mind. She had to stay strong or she'd never make it through this rough time. If ever given the chance.

She let out a heavy breath, standing up and fixing herself. She looked at the money in her hand and shoved it in her pocket. "A thousand zeni," she shook her head in disbelief. "What a rip off."

The air was cool, growing colder as the sun set. The faint moon was already in the sky, which was a dull blue. It was full tonight, one of her favorite sights. She often spoke to the moon, for it was her only friend. She could tell all her worries and fears without being judged.

"Thousand zeni, do you believe it?" she scoffed, walking through the dark woods to the abandon house she used to sleep in. "There's always tom-" she stopped at the sound of footsteps behind her. Turning, she saw two figures not too far in the distance. She quickened her pace, looking back every few steps until the figures were gone.

She continued on her path to the house, feeling a little anxious, making her perception of everything foggy.

"Hey little girl," she nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a guy's voice to the right of her.

"Whatta you want?" she stood her ground for the moment.

"We want your money, that's all. Give it to us, and you can go back to whatever it was that you were doing," the other said with a smirk.

"And if I don't?" she glared back and forth at the guys. They weren't too much older than her, maybe 20-21. Average trouble makers.

"Then we'll just have to forcefully take it from you."

"Good luck with that," she took off like lightening, running into the overgrown areas of the woods. They were close behind, but she had no plans of stopping.

"Get over here!" one got hold of the hood of her jacket, pulling her back. She flailed her body, trying to get out of his grip. She got a punch in, angering the guy more.

"You little- hold her down!" he ordered the other guy. She waited patiently for the chance to slip away when the guy let go of her hood before the other could grab her. She darted away, eventually making it to an open field, where she saw a man sitting on a rock.

"Hey! hey, green man!" she yelled, hoping he wasn't just another bad guy. His eyes opened in frustration, observing the situation. He didn't rush to help, but instead watched as the two chased her. He slowly rose from his sitting position and snarled.

Her chest tightened and she couldn't run any longer, once again falling to the ground. She looked back and noticed no one was chasing her. "Uh- what?" she panted, grasping at her chest. The green man and two guys were gone, like they just disappeared from the face of the Earth.

She looked around more frantically, until her eyes stopped at the green man who appeared back at the rock. She stood up, still out of breath, and walked over to him. He wore a white turban and purple Gi with weighted gear that a white cape draped over. His shoes were kind of funny, but looked comfortable.

"Hey, guy. What happened?" she questioned.

"You should go," he suggested, his voice deep and emotionless. He stood up and began to walk away.

"You're one of those fighter people, aren't you? You have powers, right?" she followed behind him. "Y- you're...some kind of alien."

"Get lost, kid." It was clear that he didn't want to be bothered, but she was interested in him.

"But I didn't get to thank you. For helping me out," she smiled, walking to his side. He stopped abruptly, turning to face her. "I didn't do it to help you. They were messing with my peace, as you are now."

"Well, whatever the reason, you still helped me."

He continued to walk, leaving her standing there. She sighed, catching up again.

"Hey, can you show me some moves?" he ignored her further.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" she lightly jogged to catch up. "Hey, green man, I asked you a question." His lip curled, showing off his sharp teeth as he let out a low growl.

"You look annoyed, but with that teleport thing you could have just left me here. Are you lonely?" she really knew how to dig into someone's skin.

"I'm not lonel-" he stopped to look at her "kid- Don't you have somewhere to go? I'm busy."

"You didn't look busy when you were sitting by that rock," she mentioned. His face went from serious to face-palm in an instant. "I was training, working on focusing my energy."

She let out a small laugh, "last time I checked, that was called sleeping."

"Aren't your parents worried about you? It's almost dark." She looked down, biting the inside of her cheek. "Yeah, you're right.." she kicked the dirt under her feet and began walking away. "Sorry for bothering you, mister."


	2. Chapter 2

**This takes place after the 23rd WMAT but before Gohan is born, sorry for the confusion!**

* * *

"Actually," she turned on her heels, "no. I'm not sorry. I didn't do _anything_ to you, mister!" She was done being pushed away by everyone, even though she didn't know him at all. It was just the boiling point for her, the one thing that made her overflow.

"You're just a big ol' jerk!" her words were nothing to him. She was a mere gnat that would keep flying in his face no matter how much he swatted.

"What is it that you want from me?" he put his hand to his head. What was stopping him from zapping this tiny human into oblivion? Perhaps he did feel a bit on the lonely side. Of course, he would never admit that to anyone - Not even himself.

"Teach me something!" she had her hands on her hips and a serious expression. "I want to join a tournament and I _know_ you know stuff. A green man with silly clothes? Yeah, you know stuff," she nodded, matter-of-factly.

He growled at her attempt to offend him. "Trust me, kid, you won't like what I have to offer."

"How do you know what _I_ would like?" for a kid, the girl was persistent and determined.

"Fine. You wanna train, then we'll train. Don't say I didn't warn you," he swung around, his white cape flowing in the wind.

She smiled up at him like she had won already, but little did she know what she signed up for.

"Hit me," he said.

She tilted her head in confusion, "wha?"

"Try and hit me!" he grew more annoyed.

This alone made her angry at him. She held her tiny fists up and surveyed him. A few seconds later and she jumped towards him, sending her fist flying into nothing.

"What?" she looked around, he wasn't in sight. The wind was knocked out of her as a force pushed her from behind and into the ground.

She grunted and moaned, "what was that for?!" her eyes watered, but she held it back.

"You said you wanted to train. I'm not going to treat you like the child you are," he stood with his arms crossed.

"You know," she stood up and smacked the dirt from her clothes, "you don't have to be so mean!" she jolted at him once more, once again failing to hit him. She lost her footing when he jumped out of the way, tumbling to the ground again. This time she stayed there, hiding her face behind her hair as tears fell.

"Pathetic human," he scoffed, crossing his arms. "They'll never allow such weakness in a tournament!"

She ignored him, wiping her damp eyes.

"Why don't you just go home and pretend this never happened?" he suggested. She looked at him, sniffling.

"I don't have a home!" this caused her to slump over into the ground and cover her face.

"Y-y-you're just a big green jerk." His face loosened when he heard the little whimpers, putting his fingers to his head in annoyance. He had no patience for this. Being tough is just who he was. He didn't know anything else because there was no reason for it. Feelings get in the way and he would not have that. But for some reason when he looked at her, he saw something - someone - familiar. He saw himself. Alone, with no one, no where, nothing.

"Listen, kid. I-" he stopped himself. "Come on."

She lifted her head, "huh?"

"Come on," he repeated as he started to walk away.

She wiped her face and stood up, catching up to him. "Where are we going?"

Humans didn't know when to be quiet. That, and they're much too curious and impatient.

"Hey, mister, I never got your name," she looked up at him from the side.

"That's not important."

"Oh. Well, my name's Rosie," she smiled. It quickly faded when he didn't reply. This time she took the hint and didn't speak to him, even though she really would have liked something to call him besides 'green man' or another bad nickname.

They walked back to that open field where she first saw him. He immediately went into a sitting position, closing his eyes.

"Um, what are you doing?" she questioned.

"Do as I am."

"And why exactly am I going to do that?"

His eyes twitched and his lip curved, showing his fang in anger. "You want to feel your opponents move before you see it."

She sat down as he did and closed her eyes. She imagined how calm and serene his mind must be compared to her highway of thoughts.

"Clear your mind of all thoughts and try to feel everything around you; the wind, each leaf rustling on the trees."

It felt nearly impossible for her to focus. Just when she thought she had a clear mind, a lousy thought would pop up, followed by another and another. There was no way she could pay attention to anything going on around her like this.

"I have too many thoughts," she whined.

He took a long breath in and sighed. "Talking isn't going to help. Just focus."

She tried to listen to the nature around her, finding it difficult when she had so many unanswered questions about her life. Why was she so alone? Where did her parents go? Why wasn't she enough for them to love?

"I can't do this," she stood up, her heart racing from the mixture of anger and sadness.

The green man opened his eyes, watching her in confusion.

"I can't focus on anything when all I ever think about is my crappy life!" She turned around and kicked a rock at a tree.

The sky was now dark, the moon slowly becoming their source of light.

She sat against a tree, knees to her chest and arms wrapped around. She was cold, but didn't want to bother saying anything as she knew he wouldn't care and she ultimately wasn't in the mood.

He sighed at the sight of the girl, getting up and walking over to her. "Piccolo."

"What?" she looked up at him, not knowing what the heck he said.

"My name's Piccolo."


End file.
